Amosun and the Rule of Law
By Olusola Balogun
That Nigeria is in dare strait today due to mismanagement , docile citizenry and sentimental followers is not in doubts. Our forgetfulness is legendary. We are swiftly swayed by base sentiments. These often prepare the way for poor and incompetent leadership garbed in messianic robes.
Sentiments is perharps the biggest reason why our 55-year old nation is still bereft of essential facilities which are considered sine qua non in other climes. We allow sentiments to becloud our reasoning and sense of justice.
Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun state is presently at the butt of needless jarbs and venoms over the sanction meted out to six erring public officials in his state.Some officials of the State Ministry of Education had mismanaged a simply task of setting examination questions for secondary school students in the Unified examination for public schools in the state. A teacher saddled with the assignment of setting English Language questions for Senior Secondary School 1 students made a mess of the task. He introduced bile into the dish.
The allegedly offensive portion was contained in the summary and comprehension section of the paper he set. It reads “There is no arguing about the fact that the state government is merely paying lip service to the development of education. It is true that a lot of money is being spent on the education sector but with little or no impact felt by the people, except where we want to deceive ourselves.
“Many schools run by the government, which were formerly known for academic excellence have suddenly lost their prestige and are living on past glories. No wonder, many parents and guardians are threateningly left with only one option, to withdraw their wards from these schools to other ones that are better managed….
“One of the numerous indications is the government’s inability to pay running cost to schools. The running cost is the token amount per pupil paid to school administrators to run the affairs of the school in a term. This has been neglected to pile up for several academic sessions.
“Another one is the regular poor conduct of terminal examinations. These examinations are not usually conducted as and when due. The government may have one excuse or the other, but real educationists know that appropriate timing is a strong factor in the process of Continuous Assessment (CA) of students. Thus, a situation, where for instance, the first term examination is shifted to second term is an outright departure from the norms and ethics of Continuous Assessment.” The question was distributed to all schools statewide.
There was bedlam immediately tbe students got home after the exams. Government officials in Oke-Mosan were innudated with calls from concerned parents asking why their wards were fed with such ‘toxic question’.
Ironically,the question passed through FOUR different layers of editing (gate-keepings) before it got to the students.Yet it escaped every one of them! My journalism mind likens the scenario to a reporter who dropped a report that a prominent monarch is dead to his Assistant News Editor and the report passed through four stages and got published only for the paper to discover the news is untrue.
Expectedly,the Ogun State Civil Service Commission (SCSC) was livid with the education ministry gate-keepers. They empanelled a committee to look into the misdemeanor. The affected staffs were summoned to defend themselves. They defended themselves but their defence fell short of acceptable standards .The panel looked into the Civil Service rules and recommended various sanctions. Two senior officials were retired while four others had their employment terminated.
The recommendations are truly painful as it involves means of livelihood, but that doesnt warrant attacking the wrong targets.
Governor Amosun suddenly became public enemy number 1 for a matter he knows little about is the wrong target. Right activists and trade unionists were struggling to outdo each other with the creation of invectives to haul at the governor. One group even took it to an absurd level of reporting the matter to the United Nations.
The Governor doesnt interfere in service matters. He allows civil servants to do their thing due to his respect for the rule of law. He allows the various statutory commissions to run their show according to the law because he believes he will one day finish his tenure as governor one day but the civil service e as an institution would remain.
The SCSC early this year terminated the appointments of two staffs who ran foul of the apolitical rule of civil servants by spotting Amosun campaign regalias. The governor allowed the SCSC to apply the rules even when it was clear they are his sympathisers.Like in this case,it was the SCSC that tried them and sanctioned them.
Besides,the law setting up the SCSC is clear on its independence.Paragraph 2, Part II, Third Schedule of the 1999 Constitution is very clear that Senator Amosun could not have played any role in the sanction against the workers.
The paragraph states: “2. (1) The Commission shall have power without prejudice to the powers vested in the Governor and the State Judicial Service Commission to -(a) appoint persons to offices in the State Civil Service; and (b) dismiss and exercise disciplinary control over persons holding such offices. (2) The Commission shall not exercise any of its powers under sub-paragraph (1) of this paragraph in respect of such offices of heads of divisions of Ministries or of departments of the Government of the State as may from time to time be designated by an order made by the Governor, EXCEPT AFTER CONSULTATION with the Head of the Civil Service of the State.”
So why is Senator Amosun the object of the attack when it is clear SCSC merely used its constitutionally guaranteed power and applied the rules in sanctioning its members? How is a governor, who didnt interfere in the sacking of his supporters(as it appears )by SCSC now be blamed for the latest action?
Innterestingly,, all the commentators on the latest issue conveniently forgot about the previous cases of the two civil serbants. Are the commentators asking for different rules for different set of erring public officials? The governor had said nohe wont operare two sets of laws in the state and he has been following that.
Many of these commentators are hypocrites. They wont brook sloppiness in their various offices yet they want it excused in public sevice. How many people would have been sanctioned if the scenario i described above plays out in a newspaper?
Methinks what those commentators should be asking for is clemency for the officers not aggravating the situation by hauling thoughtless invectives.
Olusola Balogun writes from Lagos
